Lankan striker eyes I-League

His numbers are comparable to Bhaichung Bhutia's, and even better, but Sri Lanka's Etire Bandanage Channa likes keeping a low profile. The veteran of 102 internationals with 49 goals concedes his opponents were not half as good as Bhutia's and that teams like Bhutan and Pakistan have been his most frequent targets. But what transpires from the conversation is the striker's desire to play for an Indian club.

"I think India have had the best set up for football among the SAARC countries over the last decade and this is one place I would love to play in. The players are kept better and paid better and we can't think of those facilities back home. We used to play at the Galle national stadium and now it's available exclusively for cricket. I had to leave Sri Lanka and fly to Maldives to keep playing," Channa says.

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Rain gain for team india

India sealed their fifth one-day series win on the trot after persistent rain ruined the fourth and final match against the West Indies at Beausejour Stadium on Sunday. The visitors bagged the series 2-1 following victories in the series opener in Jamaica and the third match on Friday. This is also India’s second series victory in the Caribbean after the Sourav Ganguly-led side won the five-match series 2-1 in 2002.

The West Indies, put in to bat by India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni after he won the toss for the fourth straight time in the series, reached 27 for one in 7.3 overs in what was reduced to a 49-overs-a-side affair. However, rain intervened again to ruin the contest.

India began well with West Indies skipper Chris Gayle falling to Ishant Sharma off the second ball of the match, edging a good length delivery to Dhoni behind the stumps.

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Ojha adds to India’s aura

Sunday morning, sleepy Nottingham woke up to a steady drizzle. Dull, grey, windy and damp, the weather prompted faces to slip easily into fierce scowls, a complete contrast to the mood in the Indian camp.

India had beaten Bangladesh by 25 runs on Saturday night, a result as comprehensive as they come in this miniature format of the game, all but ensuring smooth passage to the Super Eights stage of the second edition of the World T20 championships.

In Robin Hood’s land, Bangladesh had threatened, briefly, to steal from the rich. Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique had started off their pursuit of 180 in real earnest but then, in one over, Pragyan Ojha killed off their challenge.

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How times have changed

“The BCCI members had resolved in a working committee meeting recently that they were not happy with the Twenty20 version and will not play it.” This was Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sharad Pawar’s stance three years ago, when the Indian team’s participation in the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 championship itself was in doubt.

Back then, the bigwigs in the board considered the format a bit of a joke. England might have needed T20 to “bring crowds back to the grounds” but India did not, was the general theme (and anyway, they whispered, the fast-paced nature of the game, with just a 10-minute break, didn’t lend itself to advertising revenue).

As Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team prepare to start their title defence, it’s hard not to chuckle at how, and how much, the board’s posturing on the game’s shortest format has changed.

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Armyman, Tamil icon on field, war-torn Lanka plays cricket

From his hotel room in Colombo, Ajantha Mendis can see the cannons placed single-file by the sea in preparation for Sri Lanka’s 61st independence day celebrations. The artillery regiment to which the spinner belongs will participate in the parade in the capital on Wednesday.

As his brothers-in-arms rehearse their left-right-left steps to beating drums in the street below, the army gunner quietly goes through a meal of polroti, porridge and baked beans. The parade, to be held the day after his team’s do-or-die third game against the Indians, will be a show of strength for the army and Mendis’s regiment — some of whose units are currently pushing ahead in an intense final operation against the LTTE in the north.

If Mendis feels any emotion, it does not show. “My job is to play cricket right now, to bowl well,” he says simply.

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Right arm... over

Like his bowling, and his personality, the end of his extraordinary career was understated.

In the serenity that comes on the fifth day of a drawn Test, the batsmen practising their shots, the bowlers perfecting the line for the next match — after India had done enough to ensure there were no mishaps, and not well enough to pull off a miraculous win — Anil Kumble revealed to the world what he had decided the previous night.

As the Sunday afternoon crowd was getting in a festive mood, relishing VVS Laxman’s elegant flicks and Sourav Ganguly’s last few silken drives at the Kotla, a sign went up on .the two giant screens in the stadium. It read: “Anil Kumble has decided to retire after this Test match”.

The applause, at first muffled, became a deafening roar as Kumble waved from the dressing-room balcony, and reached a euphonious crescent do as the Indian captain walked on to the field through a corridor lined by his teammates,raising his faded Test cap.

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I wasn’t fast enough for cricket, says fastest man

Growing up in rural Trelawny in Jamaica, he had only one dream — to be a pace bowler and make a name in cricket. But then he ran into Pablo McNeil, a local sports teacher, who led him to the tracks. Usain Bolt never looked back and in Beijing last month, the fastest man on earth was hailed as the most exciting track-and-field star the world has seen in more than a decade.

“I played cricket till the junior level. I was around 12-13 when I left the game,” said Bolt during a chat on the sidelines of the Athletisim a Super Grand Prix in Lausanne. Asked why he left cricket, he said: “I was not fast enough. But I was good at running. Some of my friends used to make fun that my run-up to the crease was faster than my deliveries.”

Teacher McNeil was dead right when he told him that the track was his natural home. At age 15, Bolt set a junior world record for 200m with 20.61 seconds. Two years later, he became the first junior sprinter to break 20 seconds for 200m. And in Beijing, he showed why he is the best.

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Harbhajan can now only watch IPL

The Indian Premier League (IPL) today came down heavily on star spinner Harbhajan Singh, banning him from the remaining matches of the Twenty20 tournament this season after video footage proved he was guilty of slapping Sreesanth without provocation last Friday.

Harbhajan will lose 100 per cent of his fee for the 11 or 13 matches (if the side makes it to the semi-final and final) that his team will go on to play in the tournament. He stands to lose Rs 3 crore.

The slapping incident occurred after the Mumbai Indians, which was led by Harbhajan in the match, lost to Kings XI Punjab for whom Sreesanth plays.

Match referee Farokh Engineer, who conducted the disciplinary hearing, wrote in his report: "It is a condemnable act and against the ICC's Rule 4.2 under players' code of conduct." The report was based on a 10-minute uninterrupted feed provided by TWI, broadcasters of the tournament. Engineer watched the footage and concluded that Harbhajan had not been provoked.

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